Wicomico County liquor reform, EMS funding move forward in Saturday Leg. session
MARYLAND- Saturday marked just 3 days before the end of the general assembly session in Maryland, with bills in the House and Senate moving through the final votes and heading to Governor Wes Moore’s desk.
Senator Mary Beth Carozza tells us her bills to improve job retention for 9-1-1 call operators and rework the current physician assistants system have passed out of their committees and moved forward.
She says another bill, to help solidify start funding for an Ocean City Sports Complex is also moving through its committees and could be heard before Monday in the House.
Senator Carozza says it’s rare that the senate would meet on a weekend, however, she is encouraged her bills with local impact could now have a shot to pass this year.
“These are our 911 dispatchers that are on the front lines, this legislation is very important to establish a work group that will focus on recruitment and retention,, the House version of my 911 work Group bill has already passed, but we wanted to make sure my Senate version passed and this morning we got word that it did,” she said.
The weekend session also saw the bill to repeal the monopoly of Wicomico County’s liquor dispensary move forward, after much pushback from businesses who found the practice of buying alcohol from the county cost-prohibitive.
Bill Sponsor Delegate Carl Anderton tells 47ABC that the previous system was a relic of the prohibition era, and what the bill does is allow the dispensary to compete with other wholesalers, allowing competition in what was once a fixed market.
Anderton tells 47ABC that he hopes the lifting of the monopoly will help small businesses like restaurants have an easier time dealing with rising costs.
“Before you were beholden to go to the dispensary system and pay whatever prices they felt like charging at the time, now you have the ability to go straight to the distributor yourself and purchase the products you need. So what it does is it opens up the market of competitive commerce,” Anderton said.
Both the House and Senate are expected to meet on Sunday as well before the final day of session on Monday known as Sine Die.
